Tuesday, June 5, 2012

‘Astronomy: Transit of Venus’


     
I usually sleep through the rare astronomical wonders, but I hope to catch this one, since the sun will be up.


“This Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on where you live, sky-watchers around the world will be able to see a cosmic spectacle known as a transit of Venus. The events are so rare that only six Venus transits have been observed since the invention of the telescope more than 400 years ago.”

From NASA:

“This is the Official Sun-Earth Day webcast for the Venus Transit brought to you live from the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii.”


“The rare astronomical event, known as the transit of Venus, comes in pairs about once every century, with the previous one occurring in 2004. The next one will not take place until 2117, making the event on Tuesday truly a last-chance opportunity. Unless, of course, it rains.”
     

2 comments:

Anon_e_mouse said...

You missed a brief but good presentation on the subject last night... Comp. Jeff Alexander had some words to say on the subject in between the meetings of Three Times Three Chapter and Gebal Council in Trenton.

Magpie Mason said...

Yeah, I heard, and I'm sorry I missed it because I don't think I'm going to see much in the skies today.

Jay